- I’ve had this on my TBR for two years, figured it was time to get around to it.
I also recommend:
- The Coming of the Storm by Michael W. Gear
- When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt
Summary from GoodReads:
It is the story of a beautiful, gifted woman who leaves the magic mountains of her native New Mexico for the piratical, opulent, gaslit New York of the 1870s—only to end her search for happiness back in the high, thin air of Santa Fe.
Santa Fe Cameron, named for the place of her birth, was the child of a Spanish mother and a Scotch father and inherited from both a high degree of psychic perceptivity. Natanay, an American Indian, saw this and gave the little orphan a turquoise amulet as a keepsake; this turquoise, the Indian symbol of the spirit, dominates her life.
For Santa Fe Cameron, life is made up of violent contrasts: the rough wagon of the gay young Irish medicine vendor who brings her East and the scented hansom cabs and carriages waiting before her own Fifth Avenue mansion; the glittering world of the Astors and a dreary cell in the Tombs.
My Review:
Have you heard of Anya Seton? I sure hadn’t. I’m not sure what possessed me to put this book on my TBR list back in 2009, but THANK GOODNESS I did. Because y’all, this book was magnificent.
It was published first in 1946, and the copy I got from the library was bound in one of those old style books – unassuming, no pictures, gold lettering on top of an orange cover. I looked at that book and thought.. what was I thinking? And then I started to read… and I read more and more and next thing I know I’m waking up at 6am so I can pick up where I left off.
This is an epic story. Santa Fe Cameron was born to a dying mother, and her father dies when she reaches the mere age of 7. She is taken in and raised by a local family – but is always considered to be different, due to the Scottish features of pale skin and gray eyes. Early in the story, she is told she will have to make one of two choices, and … you, the reader, can decide if she made the right choice.
Santa Fe’s trip through this story is a rough one. It’s filled with love and heartbreak, gain and loss, and some of the most intelligent, strong, female characters I’ve ever read in a book of this age. I adored this story, and like I said earlier, I am so glad I put it on my list. This one is highly, highly recommended by me – and I cannot wait to get to the other Seton book I have here sitting on my desk.
Check out these reviews!
